Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus

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Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Quintus Lutatius Catulus
Personal details
Bornc. 130 BC
Died44 BC
Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus and Servilia
Military service
CommandsThe 78-74 BC campaign against the Cilician pirates and the Isaurian hill tribes

Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus (c. 130 BC – 44 BC), was a politician and general of the

Cilician Pirates and Isaurian hill tribes in Asia Minor. He was granted the agnomen Isauricus for his victories over the Isaurians. Upon returning to Rome he celebrated a triumph
for his victories.

Early career and supporter of Sulla

Isauricus was the son of Gaius Servilius Vatia and a member of the plebeian branch of the gens Servilii, while his mother was Caecilia Metella, daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus.

A

Corsica et Sardinia or Cilicia.[3] Because of victories in his province, Isauricus was awarded a triumph in 88 BC upon his return to Rome.[4]

In 88 BC, with the support of the

Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Isauricus put himself forward as Sulla's preferred candidate for the consular elections of 87 BC,[5] but was defeated in the subsequent election by Lucius Cornelius Cinna, a supporter of Gaius Marius.[6] In 87 BC, he was one of Sulla's lieutenants in Italy, and he attempted to stop the return of Gaius Marius and his supporters, but was driven from Ariminum by Marcus Marius Gratidianus, who took command of his army. Sometime after this defeat he fled Italy to join Sulla in Greece.[7]

In 84 BC, Isauricus returned to Italy with Sulla. He fought under Sulla in the

Second Battle of Clusium. Sulla won the war and became Dictator, in 79 BC, he appointed Vatia Isauricus as consul alongside Appius Claudius Pulcher.[9] While Isauricus was still consul designate, he opposed the awarding of a triumph to the young Pompey.[10]

Campaign against the pirates

Asia Minor/Anatolia

After his

Olympos, the stronghold of brigand Zenicetus.[1] He then went on to capture Phaselis before subduing Corycus and a number of minor pirate strongholds, capturing a number of pirate captains in the process, including the famous Nicon.[13]

In 75 BC, he advanced across the

Mithridates VI of Pontus at the outbreak of the Third Mithridatic War.[15]

Upon his return to Rome, in 74 BC, he was granted a triumph, as well as being awarded the agnomen Isauricus for his victories in Isauria. After parading the captured pirates in his triumph, he deposited the entire war booty he had captured into the treasury and, unlike his peers, kept none for himself, a feat for which he was widely acclaimed.[16]

Later career

By now, Vatia Isauricus was considered one of the leading members of the

Senate, and sometime prior to 76 BC, Vatia Isauricus was admitted to the College of Pontiffs.[17] In 70 BC he served as one of the judges in the trial of Gaius Verres. In 66 BC he supported the proposal of Gaius Manilius to give Pompey the command of the renewed war against the pirates.[13] In 63 BC he was a candidate for the position of pontifex maximus, but was defeated by Julius Caesar, who had served him in his war against the pirates the decade before. Towards the end of that same year he had supported the consul Cicero in the suppression of the Catiline conspiracy, and spoke in the senate in favour of imposing the death penalty upon Catiline and his supporters.[13]

In 57 BC he joined the other members of the aristocracy to bring about Cicero's return from banishment, while in the following year (56 BC) he opposed in the senate the restoration of

Tiber River after a destructive flood in 54 BC.[18]

From 55 to 44 BC Vatia Isauricus was the

civil wars. He died in the early summer of 44 BC.[20]

Vatia Isauricus was the father of the consul of 48 BC and 41 BC, Publius Servilius Isauricus. He also had a daughter named Servilia.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Smith, pg. 1232
  2. ^ Broughton, pg. 5
  3. ^ Broughton, pgs. 26 & 35
  4. ^ Broughton, pgs. 35 & 42
  5. ^ Keaveney, Arthur, Sulla: The Last Republican (1982), pg. 71
  6. ^ Broughton, pg. 43
  7. ^ Broughton, pg. 51
  8. ^ Broughton, pg. 72
  9. ^ Broughton, pg. 82
  10. ^ Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 14:4
  11. ^ Broughton, pg. 87
  12. ^ Broughton, pg. 90
  13. ^ a b c d e f Smith, pg. 1233
  14. ^ Broughton, pg. 99
  15. ^ Philip Matyszak, Mithridates the Great, Rome's Indomitable Enemy, p.103.
  16. ^ Liv. Epit. 90, 93; Oros. v. 23 ; Florus iii. 6 ; Eutrop. vi. 3 ; Strabo xiv. pp. 667, 671 ; Frontinus Stratagemata iii. 7. § 1; Cicero In Verrem i. 21, iii. 90, v. 26, 30, De lege agraria i. 2, ii. 19 ; Valerius Maximus viii. 5. § 6 ; comp. Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. iv. pp. 396, 397.)
  17. ^ Broughton, pgs. 114 & 333; Smith pg. 1233
  18. ^ Broughton, pg. 215
  19. ^ Broughton, pg. 130
  20. ^ Broughton, pg. 333

Sources

  • Broughton, T. Robert S., The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Vol II (1952).
  • Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol III (1867).
Political offices
Preceded by
Roman consul
79 BC
With: Ap. Claudius Pulcher
 Succeeded by
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